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aBI   LAdOK  REVOLT 
OBI    IN  INDIA 


THE  LIBRARY 

OF 

THE  UNIVERSITY 

OF  CALIFORNIA 

LOS  ANGELES 


/I 


THE  LABOR  REVOLT 
IN  INDIA 


By  \l 

BASANTA  KOOMAR  ROY 


Author  of  "Rabindranath  Tagore:  The  Man 
and  His  Poetry" 


241 


New  York 
FRIENDS  OF  FREEDOM  FOR  INDIA 
Seven  East  Fifteenth  Street 
1920 


Ten  Cents 


The  Friends  of  Freedom  for  India 
7  East  15th  Street,  New  York  City 

To  maintain  the  right  of  asylum  for  political  refugees  from,  India, 
To  present  the  case  for  the  Independence  of  India. 


Prof.    Robert    Morss    Lovett, 
President 

Dudley  Field  Malone, 
Vice-President 

Taraknath   Das, 

Executive  Secretary 

Acnes  Smedley, 

General  Secretary 

S.  N.  Ghose, 

National  Organizer 

Dr.  Gertrude  B.  Kelly, 
Treasurer 

Basanta  Koomar  Roy, 

Editor,  India  News  Service 

Gilbert  E.  Roe, 

Frank  P.  Walsh, 

Legal  Advisers 


EXECUTIVE  COMMITTEE 

The    Officeri    and 

ROGER   N.    BALDWIN 
REV.    JOHN   H.    DOOLEY 
ISAAC   A.   HOURWICH 
ABRAHAM   LEFKOWITZ 
lOHN    D.    MOORE 


NATIONAL    COUNCIL 
TOSCAN    BENNETT,    Hartford,    Conn. 
PROF.   FRANZ  BOAS,  New   York 
ERNEST    BOHM,    New    York 
JANE    BRYAN,    Brooklyn,    N.    Y. 
ROBERT   M.   BUCK,    Chicago 
HERMAN   DEFREM,   New    York 
DR.   W.   E.   B.    Du   BOIS,,   New   York 
JAMES  A.   DUNCAN,  Seattle 
EDW.   F.   DUNNE,   Chicago 
SARA  BARD  FIELD,  Son  Francisco 
JOHN    FITZPATRICK,   Chicago 
PHILIP    FRANCIS,     New    York 
GILSON    GARDNER,    Washington,   D.    C. 
PETER    GOLDEN,    New    York 
FREDERIC    C.    HOWE,     Washington 
PROF.   ROBERT   HERRICK,    Chicago 
MARY    C.    KNOBLAUCH,   New    York 
ARTHUR  L«   SUEUR,  St.  Paul 
LOUIS   P.    LOCHNER,    Chicago 
JAMES    H.     MAURER,    Harrisburg,     Pa. 
CARL  O.  PARSONS,   Minneapolis,  Minn. 
GILBERT  E.   ROE.  New   York 
JOSEPH    SCHLOSSBERG,   New   York 
UPTON    SINCLAIR,    Pasadena,    Cal. 
NORA    C.    SMITHEMAN,    New    York 
NORMAN  THOMAS,  New   York 

HINDUSTHANEE    ADVISORY     BOARD 
TARAKNATH    DAS,    New   York 
FAZAL    DEEN,    Holtville,    Cal.    . 
S.    N.    GHOSE,   New   York 
SURENDRA    KARR,    San   Francisco 
HAKAN    KHAN,    Colusa,    Cal. 
S.   G.  PANDIT.  Los  AngeUs 
B.    K.    ROY.    New    York 
H.    SANTOKH,    Son    Francisco 
ASHA    SINGH,    Holtville,    Cal. 
BISHAN    SINGH,    San    Francisco 
HARJAP    SINGH,    San   FrancUco 
PURAN   SINGH,    Willowi,   Cal. 


THE  LABOR  REVOLT  IN  INDIA 


Borne,  as  it  were,  on  the  back  of  a  tornado  has  gone  forth  throughout 
the  world  the  momentous  message  of  a  tremendous  labor  unrest  in  India — an 
unrest  that  is  spreading  like  prairie  fire  from  trade  to  trade,  from  city  to  city, 
and  from  province  to  province.  The  workingman  of  India,  like  his  comrades 
of  other  lands,  has  long  been  suffering  in  silence  from  the  insatiable 
greed  of  his  master.  Today  the  entire  world  seems  to  be  aflame  with  the  fire 
of  labor  unrest  that  seeks  to  burn  to  ashes  all  social  iniquities,  economic  de- 
baucheries and  political  hooliganism  that  have  plunged  humanity  into  the  very 
abysmal  depth  of  unalloyed  misery.  And  India  is  only  playing  her  part  in  this 
great  drama  of  Humanity. 

India  is  as  large  as  the  whole  of  Europe  without  Russia.  Within  her 
boundaries  fifteen  British  Isles  or  ten  Japans  or  all  of  the  United  States  east 
of  the  Rockies  may  comfortably  be  accommodated.  Her  population  is 
315,000,000,  three  times  that  of  America,  in  other  words,  she  has  one-fifth  of 
the  total  population  of  the  world.  In  natural  resources,  she  produces  one-third 
of  the  world's  supply  of  rice  and  cattle,  tea  and  tobacco;  one  third  of  its  cane 
sugar;  one  fifth  of  its  cotton;  and  one-tenth  of  its  wheat.  The  mineral  products 
of  India  include  gold,  coal,  petroleum,  lead,  tungsten,  mica,  tin,  jadestone,  ruby, 
sapphire,  iron,  silver,  copper,  alum,  manganese,  clay,  chromite,  agate,  gypsum, 
diamond,  platinum,  antimony,  graphite,  asbestos,  bismuth,  etc.,  etc.  In  the 
year  1917,  India  produced  coal  worth  $22,558,225;  gold  worth  $11,109,445; 
petroleum  worth  $5,464,825;  manganese  worth  $7,505,400.  Experts  estimate 
that  not  even  a  thousandth  part  of  the  iron  deposits  of  India  have  been  worked 
or  even  prospected.    India's  coal  fields  are  vast,  rich  and  almost  inexhaustible. 

Occupations  of  Population 

Of  the  total  population  of  315,000,000 — 143,456  men  and  62,614  women 
live  principally  on  their  unearned  incomes.  This  leisure  class  with  their  depend- 
ents number  540,175,  i.  e.  0.17  per  cent,  of  the  total  population  of  the  country. 
According  to  the  last  census,  227,080,092  are  supported  by  occupations  con- 
nected with  the  production  of  raw  materials  of  which  actual  workers  are 
106,508,881— male  72,332,823,  female  34,176,058;  the  total  supported  by  pas- 
ture and  agriculture  are  224,695,900  of  which  actual  workers  are  105,335,379 — 
male  71,462,858,  female  33,872,511;  the  total  supported  by  fishing  and  hunting 
are  1,854,583  of  which  actual  workers  are  865,054 — male  659,400,  female 
205,653;  the  total  supported  by  the  raising  of  farm  stock  are  5,176,104  of 
which  actual  workers  are  3,590,691— male  2,984,467,  female  606,224;  extrac- 
tion of  minerals  supports  529,609  of  which  actual  workers  are  308,449 — male 
2,685,256,  female  1,764,193;  wood  industries  support  3,799,892  of  which  actual 
workers  are  17,515,230 — male  11,503,467,  female  6,011,763;  the  total  supported 
by  textile  industries  are  8,306,501  of  which  actual  workers  are  4,449,449 — male 


1 i 59250 


2.685,256  female  1,764,193;  wood  industries  support  3,799,892  of  which  actual 
workers  are  1,730,920 — male  1,297,527,  female  433,393;  metal  industries  sup- 
port 1,861,445  of  which  actual  workers  are  737,306 — male  657,938,  female 
79,369;  ceramics  supports  2,240,210  of  which  actual  workers  are  1,159,168 — 
male  767,886,  female  391,282;  food  industries  support  3,711,675  of  which 
2,134,045  are  actual  workers — male  806,194,  female  1,327,851;  clothing  and 
toilet  industries  support  7,750,609  of  which  actual  workers  are  3,747,755 — male 
2,676,445,  female  1,071,310;  building  industries  support  2,062,493  of  which 
962,115  are  actual  workers — male  752,342,  female  209,773.  Transportation 
supports  5,028,978  of  which  2,394,882  are  actual  workers— male  2,156,943, 
female  237,939;  transport  by  water  supports  982,766  of  which  actual  workers 
are  481,605— male  451,404,  female  30,021 ;  transport  by  road  supports  2,781,938 
of  which  actual  workers  are  1,362,504 — male  1,181,167,  female  181,337;  trans- 
port by  rail  supports  1,062,493  of  which  474,184  are  actual  workers — male 
448,992,  female  25,192;  post  office,  telegraph  and  telephone  services  support 
201,781  of  which  76,589  are  actual  workers— male  75,380,  female  1,209.  Pub- 
lic administration  and  liberal  arts  support  10,912,123  of  which  4,499,654  are 
actual  workers — male  3,981,507,  female  518,147.  All  trades  such  as  banking 
and  brokerage,  trading  in  textiles,  metals,  wood,  skins,  etc.  support  17,839,102 
of  which  8,101,406  are  actual  workers — male  5,464,141,  female  2,637,265.  In 
view  of  the  fact  that  India  has  the  overpowering  weight  of  population,  that  she 
occupies  a  strategic  position  on  the  trade  routes  of  the  world,  that  she  produces 
tremendous  amounts  of  raw  materials,  and  that  she  is  the  determining  factor 
in  the  preservation  or  destruction  of  British  imperialism  which  is  the  wet  nurse 
of  the  present  capitalistic  system  of  the  world,  it  cannot  be  denied  that  India  is 
destined  to  play  a  prominent  part  in  the  Great  Adjustment  that  has  begun  after 
the  great  betrayal  at  Versailles. 

Imdustrial  Revolution 

From  time  immemorial  India  has  been  famous  for  the  riches  of  her 
raw  materials  and  the  matchless  excellence  of  her  manufactured  products. 
India's  silk  and  muslin,  brocades  and  calicoes,  ivory  goods  and  metal  works 
were  wont  to  be  exported  all  over  the  world.  Thus  India  grew  fabulously  rich. 
This  aroused  the  cupidity  of  foreign  nations.  At  last  India  came  under  British 
political  domination;  and  soon  by  unjust  laws  most  tyrannically  administered 
India's  industries  were  strangled  to  death.  The  duties  on  Indian  goods  exported 
to  England  were  almost  prohibitive.  The  duties  on  aloes  ranged  from  70  to  280 
per  cent.;  on  assafoetida  from  233  to  622  per  cent.;  tea  from  6  to  100  per  cent.; 
coffee  from  105  to  373  per  cent.;  sugar  from  94  to  393  per  cent.;  calicoes  and 
dimities  81  per  cent.;  manufactured  cotton  81  per  cent.;  manufactured  goods 
of  hair  or  goats  wool  84  per  cent.;  lacquered  ware  84  per  cent.  Many  articles 
of  Indian  manufacture  were  unconditionally  prohibited;  while  British  goods 
were  forced  on  the  people  by  diplomatic  pressure  or  at  the  point  of  the  bayonet. 
The  following  figures  would  paint  but  a  faint  picture  of  the  actual  state  of 
affairs:  In  1814  1,266,608  pieces  of  India's  cotton  goods  were  imported  into 
Great  Britain,  but  in  1835  the  number  came  down  to  306,086  pieces.  On  the 
contrary,  in  1814  India  imported  from  Great  Britain  818,208  yards  of  cotton 
goods,  but  in  1835  51,777,277  yards.    In  1787  Dacca  exported  $1,500,000  worth 


of  muslin  to  England;  but  it  came  down  to  nothing  in  1817.  Thus  it  was  in 
other  industries.  No  wonder  that  the  East  India  Company  paid  dividends  of 
about  120  per  cent.  Millions  of  India's  artisans  were  forced  into  farming.  The 
country  where  agriculture  and  industries  worked  harmoniously  for  the  enrich- 
ment of  both  was  reduced  to  a  purely  agricultural  country  to  produce  food  for 
the  millions  of  Great  Britain,  and  raw  materials  for  the  mills  and  factories  of 
the  same  country. 

But  with  the  beginning  of  the  new  nationalist  movement  in  India  since 
1905  this  land  of  erstwhile  cottage  industries  of  uncommon  efficiency  is  now  in 
the  midst  of  a  titanic  industrial  revolution.  Modern  mills  and  factories  are 
ceaselessly  cropping  up  on  all  sides.  In  British  India  alone  in  1917-18  there 
were  236  cotton  mills;  1,428  cotton  ginning,  cleaning  and  pressing  mills  and 
factories;  514  rice  mills;  76  jute  mills;  125  jute  presses;  5  woolen  mills;  14 
government  arms  and  ammunition  factories;  61  iron  and  brass  factories;  7  pet- 
roleum refineries;  176  tile  and  brick  factories;  87  railway  workshops;  36 
sugar  factories;  86  engineering  workshops;  125  saw  mills.  In  these  industrial 
centres  one  sees  sights  of  revolting  contrasts.  In  one  section  of  the  city  British 
captains  of  industry  live  in  their  ravishingly  luxurious  homes  where  even  dogs 
and  cats  are  well  fed  and  well  kept;  and  in  another  section  one  enters  a  factory 
to  see  a  great  craftsman  who  once  produced  articles  of  exquisite  beauty  that 
may  still  be  decorating  mansions  and  museums  in  New  York  and  Paris,  in  Rome 
and  London,  now  working  for  a  few  cents  a  day,  mechanically  feeding  a  ma- 
chine; or  one  sees  young  women  whom  malnutrition  has  made  old  much  beyond 
their  age,  incapable  of  even  nursing  their  own  babies,  working  in  hungry 
stomachs  for  eleven  hours  a  day  in  ill-ventilated  rooms;  and  again  one  finds 
dear  little  children  of  nine  and  ten  who  should  be  in  schools  studying  are  here 
working,  starved  and  emaciated,  the  lustre  of  their  black  eyes  and  the  pathos 
of  their  faces  speaking  loudly  of  their  imminent  doom.  It  is  in  these  mills  and 
factories  with  their  outrageously  long  working  hours,  scandalously  low  wages, 
and  degrading  slums  and  tenements  where  nothing  but  starvation  and  death 
prosper,  that  the  spirit  of  labor  revolt  is  mostly  in  evidence  in  its  aggressive 
form;  for  here  the  translucent  pool  of  the  divinity  of  human  life  is  being 
cruelly  vitiated  with  the  deadly  poison  of  modern  materialism  and  criminal 
capitalism.     So  let  us  first  consider  the  problem  of  the  industrial  workers. 

Working  Hours 

In  1908  a  British  government  commission  made  an  inquiry  into  the  con- 
dition of  labor  in  the  Indian  factories.  This  British  commission  was  forced  to 
admit  that  in  the  textile  factories  excessive  hours  were  frequently  worked  in 
cotton  mills;  in  all  jute  mills  weavers  were  employed  for  excessive  hours.  The 
commission  also  discovered  that  many  mills  were  run  and  the  workers  had  to 
work  from  5:30  A.  M.  to  7:30  P.  M.  with  only  half  an  hour's  recess;  the  Calcutta 
jute  mills  were  open  from  4:30  A.  M.  to  8:30  P.  M.  The  cotton  ginning  mills 
were  run  up  to  eighteen  hours  a  day.  The  factories  of  Broach  and  Ahmedabad 
were  working  14  hours;  those  in  Agra  for  151/4  hours,  and  those  in  Delhi  for 
141^  hours  a  day.  The  rice  and  flour  mills  were  worked  as  high  as  twenty-two 
hours  a  day.  As  a  result  of  this  report,  the  British  government  ordained  that 
no  man  should  be  employed  in  the  textile  factory  for  more  than  twelve  hours 


in  any  one  day.  A  woman's  working  day  should  consist  of  eleven  hours,  and 
children  between  nine  and  fourteen  should  not  work  for  more  than  six  hours. 
And  the  day  the  boy  completes  his  fourteenth  year,  he  is  made  to  work  twelve 
hours  a  day.  The  workers  actually  have  only  twelve  minutes  to  eat  their  lunch. 
In  Bombay  and  Madras  many  working  men  live  in  the  suburbs.  And  social 
service  experts  have  observed  that  in  more  instances  than  one,  workers  have  to 
leave  home  at  4:30  A.  M.  to  be  on  time  at  the  factory  gate  at  5:45;  and  they 
plod  back  to  their  homes  at  8  in  the  evening.  The  government  regulates  only 
the  working  hours  in  the  mills  and  factories.  Workers  in  other  fields  are 
exploited  all  the  more.  In  some  of  the  gold,  coal,  iron,  mica,  and  manganese 
mines,  the  workers  are  forced  to  work  even  for  as  high  as  twenty-two  hours  a 
day.  In  such  cases  meals  are  brought  to  the  workingmen  at  work.  In  the  tea 
gardens  of  Assam  women  up  to  eighteen  years  are  supposed  to  work  for  nine 
hours  a  day,  and  men  for  twelve  hours.  But  every  day  they  are  made  to  work 
for  much  longer  hours;  and  almost  invariably  they  are  subjected  to  unspeakable 
tortures  and  outrages. 

Wages 

Though  the  workingman  of  India  works  from  dawn  to  dusk,  and  quite 
often  until  late  hours  at  night,  he  is  most  poorly  paid.  India's  enemies  claim 
that  the  standard  of  living  is  so  low  in  India  that  they  do  not  need  high  wages. 
The  standard  of  living  of  the  workingman  of  India  is  low  not  by  choice,  but  by 
necessity — the  necessity  of  poverty.  The  rich  men  of  India  have  at  least  just  as 
high  standard  of  living  as  the  rich  men  of  America  and  Europe.  At  any  rate, 
the  British  Factory  Commission  of  1908  did  not  think  it  worthwhile  to  consider 
the  problem  of  wages  of  factory  workers.  The  abject  poverty  in  which  the  in- 
dustrial workingman  is  forced  to  live  may  easily  be  imagined  from  the  wages 
prevailing  in  the  cotton  mills  in  Bombay,  the  jute  mills  of  Bengal  and  the 
leather  factories  of  Cawnpore.  In  the  cotton  mills  the  weaver  gets  per  month 
$15.64;  warper  $13.50;  rover  $8.02;  drawer  $7.79;  reeler  $5.65;  doffer  $4.20; 
these  miserable  wages  include  war  bonus.  In  the  jute  mills  of  Bengal  that  are 
completely  owned  by  Scotchmen  from  Dundee,  the  wages  per  month  are:  car- 
penter $10.00;  weaver  $9.00;  beamer  $7.33;  winder  $6.00;  spinner  $4.91; 
unskilled  laborer  $4.40;  rover  $4.00;  shifter  $3.66;  carder  $3.00.  In  1917 
and  1918  export  of  raw  materials  and  manufactured  jute  was  worth  $164,356,- 
975.  In  the  leather  works  of  Cawnpore,  a  machine  operator  gets  $7.16  a  month; 
slicker  whitener  $5.33 ;  unhairer  and  flesher  $4.00  and  scourer  and  setter  $4.00. 
Thus  the  mill  hands  starve  while  the  mill -owners  draw  dividends  as  high  as  200 
per  cent,  on  their  investment.  On  his  return  to  London  from  India  in  1918, 
Hon.  E.  S.  Montagu,  the  present  secretary  of  state  for  India  said  "The  wages 
paid  in  India  are  so  low  that  even  small  rise  in  the  prices  of  food  or  cotton 
may  give  rise  to  serious  disturbances,"  During  the  war,  wages  have  increased 
by  about  50  per  cent.,  whereas  the  prices  of  staple  articles  of  food  and  clothing 
have  increased  as  high  as  150  per  cent. 

In  order  to  crush  all  spirit  of  independence  and  revolt  against  abhorrent 
British  atrocities  in  the  mills  and  factories  of  India,  some  manufacturers  are 
giving  a  "gratuity  fund."  The  worker  after  ten  years  of  continuous  and  satis- 
factory service  is  oflfered  between  five  and  ten  per  cent,  of  his  total  wages.    This 


temptation  has  been  cleverly  devised  to  keep  the  workingman  a  silent  slave  to 
his  employer.  Similarly,  the  charity-mongers  are  busy  using  palliatives  like 
workingman's  clubs  and  institutes,  this  they  do  either  professionally,  or  to  buy 
a  few  dollars'  worth  of  heaven,  or  to  hypnotize  the  workers  into  complacent 
slumber.  The  awakened  workingman  of  India  knows  full  well  that  charity  is 
an  anachronism  in  the  modern  age.  Charity  can  exist  only  in  a  society  where 
injustice  thrives,  and  what  light  is  to  darkness,  justice  is  to  charity.  So  the 
new  workingman  of  India  clearly  sees  through  such  snares  and  is  refusing  to 
be  deceived  by  them. 

Housing  and  Health 
Starvation  wages  and  growing  indebtedness  of  the  industrial  worker  of 
India  are  bound  to  reflect  on  his  housing  and  health.  An  authority  on  Indian 
labor  problems  thus  describes  the  housing  condition  in  the  mill  districts  of 
Bombay:  "The  houses  are  built  on  the  ground  without  a  plinth  and  in  wet 
weather  are  never  dry.  When  the  ordinary  storm  water  becomes  mingled  with 
sewage  either  from  the  cesspools  or  from  the  drainage  pipes  themselves,  the 
conditions  of  the  houses  can  hardly  be  imagined  by  those  who  have  not  seen 
them.  It  has  been  stated  that  the  death-rate  in  one-roomed  tenements  is  65 
per  thousand,  figures  which  are  more  eloquent  than  any  words  to  describe  the 
evils  arising  from  bad  housing."  The  tenement  rooms  are  generally  eight  feet 
by  ten,  and  in  such  hovels  live  millions  of  Indian  workers.  Indeed,  such  is 
the  lot  of  the  workingman  of  India,  that  even  the  prisoners  of  that  country  are 
better  fed,  better  clothed  and  better  housed  than  him  who  produces  all  the  fabu- 
lous wealth  on  which  fatten  his  rulers  and  exploiters.  The  average  weight  of 
prisoners  in  Bombay  is  112.  12  lbs.,  whereas  that  of  the  mill  operative  excepting 
weaver  is  102.093  lbs.  The  weaver  is  better  paid  than  others  and  his  average 
weight  is  104.810  lbs.  The  average  weight  of  the  prisoner  in  the  United  Prov- 
inces is  115.08  lbs.,  and  that  in  Burma  is  120  lbs.  In  the  factories  themselves, 
"any  man,"  to  use  the  words  of  an  expert,  "would  feel  exhausted  even  if  he  mere- 
ly sat  in  a  chair  in  some  of  the  workrooms  for  eight  or  nine  hours,  the  atmos- 
phere is  so  foul."  And  doctors  agree,  that,  "The  mill  operative  suffers  to  a  very 
large  extent  from  tuberculosis  and  dyspepsia," 

Unions 

The  workingman  of  India  is  proverbially  patient,  but  there  is  a  limit 
even  to  his  patience.  His  growing  impatience  with  his  hard  lot  has  crystal y zed 
into  unrest,  and  this  unrest  is  manifesting  itself  in  constant  formation  of  unions 
and  execution  of  strikes.  Heretofore  trade  guilds  and  caste  systems  used  to 
protect  the  workingman.  Now,  on  account  of  the  growing  pressure  of  poverty 
he  is  being  forced  to  change  his  trade.  So  trade  guilds  are  disintegrating.  And 
on  account  of  the  rapid  growth  of  the  revolutionary  movement  the  caste  system 
is  fast  becoming  a  thing  of  the  past.  A  new  social  order  is  taking  the  place  of 
the  old.  And  in  this  period  of  reconstruction  the  Indian  workingman  realizes 
the  need  of  industrial  organizations.  Unions  are  making  the  workingman  of 
India  realize  his  own  strength.  The  workingman,  be  he  in  India  or  America, 
England  or  Japan,  is  like  the  elephant  we  see  in  India,  tremendous  in  size  and 
titanic  in  strength,  and  yet  a  little  man  sits  on  his  neck  and  with  a  little  steel 
rod,  guides  and  controls  the  huge  elephant  as  he  pleases.    Why?     Because  the 


elephant's  eyes  are  small,  very  small,  and  it  has  not  intelligence  enough  to 
know  that  it  has  tremendous  strength.  It  is  exactly  the  same  thing  with  the 
workingman;  he  does  not  realize  his  own  power.  Even  though  he  is  in  the 
majority,  he  is  controlled,  ruled,  and  quite  often  even  tyrannized  by  a  hand- 
ful of  people,  a  microscopic  minority.  Now,  suddenly  he  has  discovered  him- 
self, and  realized  his  own  kingly  importance  on  the  chessboard  of  human  society. 
Unions  in  India  are  being  formed  not  along  craft,  but  along  industrial 
lines.  India's  labor  leaders  are  quite  conversant  with  the  deficiencies  of  the 
craft  unionism  of  the  West.  So  they  are  forming  and  operating  unions  along 
industrial  lines.  Subdivisions  there  must  be  for  the  sake  of  efficiency.  But 
subdivisions  are  being  made  to  co-operate  and  co-ordinate  for  the  benefit  of 
human  society  as  one,  even  as  different  organs  of  the  body  co-operate  and  co- 
ordinate to  keep  the  human  body  alive.  At  any  rate,  unions  in  India  are  rapidly 
growing  in  number  and  influence.  To  name  a  few  of  such  unions  that  have 
recently  been  formed  in  India:  Textile  Workers  Union  of  Bombay,  Bombay 
Millhands  Union,  Postmen's  unions  in  the  larger  cities,  dockmen's  unions, 
Bombay  United  Labor  League,  Bombay  Baroda  and  Central  Railway  Employee's 
Union,  teachers'  unions,  barbers'  unions,  Madras  Labor  Union,  trolleymen's 
unions  in  different  cities,  Madras  Rickshawmen's  Union,  railway  workshop 
unions,  workmen's  unions  at  Jamsedpur,  Calcutta  United  Association  of  Masons, 
Telegraph  Operator's  Unions,  the  North  Western  Railway  Association,  etc.,  etc. 

Strikes 

As  unions  increase,  strikes  do  increase.  Strike  is  now  a  thing  of  daily 
occurrence  in  India.  At  the  least  displeasure  the  workingmen  go  on  strike, 
and  paralyze  gigantic  industries.  Every  trade  and  every  industry  is  affected 
by  it.  Since  last  January,  that  is  to  say,  in  the  first  six  months  of  the  year  1920, 
there  have  been  at  least  200  strikes  involving  more  than  1,500,000  men,  women 
and  children  wage  earners.  In  the  first  two  months  of  the  year,  there  were  110 
strikes  in  the  cotton  and  jute  mills  alone.  Long  hours,  low  wages,  capitalistic 
caprices,  governmental  lawlessness,  and  above  all,  the  glowing  tales  of  the 
triumph  of  the  Russian  proletariat  are  enhancing  the  cause  of  the  strike  move- 
ment. The  nature  of  the  wrongs  and  the  remedies  sought  by  the  strikers  may 
generally  be  summarized  in  the  demands  of  the  strikers  of  the  Tata  Iron  and 
Steel  works  at  Jamsedpur:  Eight  hour  day;  fifty  per  cent,  increase  in  wages; 
production  bonus  which  is  now  granted  to  Europeans  only;  leave  with  full  pay 
in  all  cases  of  sickness  and  disability  through  accident  in  the  works;  prompt 
payment  of  adequate  annuities  to  the  family  of  persons  killed  by  accident  in 
the  works;  codification  of  laws  of  dismissal  from  services;  one  month's  vaca- 
tion a  year  with  full  pay;  all  over  time  duties  should  be  discouraged  or  made 
strictly  voluntary. 

Not  only  the  steel  workers,  the  textile  weavers  and  the  railwaymen  but 
also  the  sweepers  and  scavangers,  barbers  and  tailors,  yes,  even  the  British  slaves 
in  the  tea  gardens  of  Assam  are  in  revolt  against  the  present  system,  and  are 
going  on  strike  and  are  triumphantly  winning  their  victories.  To  mention  just 
a  few  strikes  in  India  since  the  beginning  of  the  year:  In  the  general  strike  in 
Bombay,  200,000  were  out.  It  began  in  the  cotton  mills  and  soon  extended  to 
longshoremen,  clerks,  workers  in  municipal  offices  and  the  employees  of  the 

8 


petroleum  company.  Woolen  mills  at  Cawnpore  and  Bombay  20,000  out;  Railway 
workshop  workers  at  Jamalpur,  20,000  out;  workers  in  the  jute  mills  of  Cal- 
cutta 35,000  out;  Masons,  bricklayers  and  unskilled  workers  in  the  building 
industries  in  Calcutta,  20,000  out;  Rangoon  Mills  22,000  out;  Madras  trolley 
workers,  2,000  out;  Pioneer  Press  of  Allahabad,  700  out;  Madura  Cotton  Mill 
workers,  5,000  out;  Karachi  port  workers,  6,000  out;  Madras  Cotton  Mill 
workers,  17,000  out;  Gun  Carriage  Factory  workers  at  Jubbulpore,  3,500  out; 
Tata  Iron  Works  at  Jamsedpore,  4^0,000  out;  Northwestern  Railway,  25,000 
out;  Allahabad  Postal  and  Railway  Mail  Service  Workers;  United  Provinces 
government  printing  shop  workers;  the  printing  press  of  Civil  and  Military 
Gazette,  Krishna  and  Edward  mills  of  Beawar,  the  spinners  of  a  group  of  mills 
at  Ahmedabad;  a  second  strike  in  Bombay  and  Madras  Cotton  mills;  Bengal 
iron  and  steel  workers;  Eastern  Chemical  Company;  Empire  Engineering  Co.; 
Angus  Engineering  Works;  Cooper-Allen  Tannery  of  Bombay;  Printing  Press 
of  the  Times  of  India,  etc.  The  strikes  in  India  are  being  conducted  along  in- 
dustrial lines.  Whenever  there  is  a  strike  all  connected  with  the  industry — 
skilled  and  unskilled  workers,  chemists  and  clerks,  foremen  and  porters,  all 
walk  out  together,  suffer  together,  starve  together  and  when  the  victory  is  won, 
they  return  together.  The  women  workers  are  taking  keen  interest  in  the  labor 
movement,  specially  in  the  formation  of  unions  and  organization  of  strikes. 
Recently  all  the  women  workers  in  the  Madura  Mills  struck  work  first,  then 
4,000  of  their  men  comrades  followed  suit.  Quite  unlike  in  America  and 
Europe  the  women  workers  of  India  can  never  be  hired  as  "scabs"  to  take  the 
places  of  men  strikers.  Women  have  all  through  ages  been  the  guiding  influence 
in  India.  And  in  these  industrial  movements  too,  their  spirit  of  self-sacrifice  and 
attachment  to  lofty  idealism  are  leading  the  workers  of  India  to  the  haven  of 
assured  victory. 

The  tyrannical  attitude  of  the  British  government  in  suppressing  strikes 
in  India  may  be  told  by  the  story  of  the  Calcutta  postmen's  strike.  The  Cal- 
cutta postal  peons  respectfully  represented  to  the  British  government  that  their 
families  were  starving  on  $5.00  per  month  salary,  and  that  unless  they  were  given 
$6.66  a  month  they  would  go  on  strike.  The  British  officials  did  not  think  it 
worthwhile  even  to  consider  such  a  proposition.  The  postmen  went  on  strike 
"with  the  result  that  one  man  got  twenty  days'  imprisonment  with  hard  labor 
for  being  the  treasurer  of  the  strike  fund,  five  others  were  condemned  to  three 
weeks'  imprisonment  with  hard  labor  for  being  the  leaders,  eight  others  were 
fined,  some  dismissed  and  the  rest  pardoned  and  kept  on  the  old  salary  of  $5.00 
a  month,"  when  the  cost  of  living  increased  by  150  per  cent.  Imprisonments 
and  dismissals  are  the  mildest  forms  of  punishment  used  by  the  British  in  India. 
They  have  grown  so  panic-stricken,  that  wherever  there  is  a  strike,  there  they  send 
their  soldiers  with  rifles  and  machine  guns  to  shoot  down  men,  women  and 
children  in  order  to  terrorize  the  workers  into  submission.  Just  the  other  day, 
British  soldiers  massacred  in  cold  blood  more  than  200  striking  steel  workers 
at  Jamsedpore.  The  workers,  however,  are  assuming  a  militant  attitude,  and  are 
emphatically  refusing  to  submit  to  British  atrocities  without  a  protest.  The  en- 
raged workingmen  of  India  are  quite  often  destroying  plants  and  railroad  trains, 
and  are  doing  other  damages  to  the  properties  of  their  masters. 

9 


In  British  Colonies 

By  the  sweat  of  his  brow,  the  blood  of  his  veins  and  the  marrow  of  his 
bones  the  Indian  workingman  has  helped  the  Briton  to  build  and  develop  his 
world-wide  empire.  And  yet,  in  all  the  British  colonies  he  is  most  mercilessly 
exploited.  The  Britsh  capitalists  must  have  money  no  matter  what  it  costs 
others  in  sorrow  and  suffering;  in  moral,  material  and  physical  degradation. 
They  own  the  government  of  India,  and  it  is  they  who  had  indentured  labor 
legalized,  and  by  cowardly  methods  most  despicable  they  induced  thousands  of 
India's  illiterate  workingmen  and  workingwomen  to  sign,  rather  finger-mark, 
contracts  of  their  own  slavery.  Thus  they  were  shifted  out  of  India  to  work 
in  the  mines  of  South  Africa,  in  the  farms  of  Fiji,  in  the  plantations  of  British 
Guiana  and  Mauritius.  Today  there  are  more  than  2,000,000  Indian  workers  in 
the  British  colonies.  In  the  Mauritius  there  are  257,697;  in  Federated  Malaya 
States  210,000;  in  Natal  133,031;  in  British  Guiana  129,389;  in  Trinidad 
117,100;  in  Fiji  44,220;  in  Suriman  26,919;  in  Jamaica  20,000;  in  the  Trans- 
vaal 10,048;  in  the  Cape  Colony  6,606;  in  Canada  2,500.  In  all  the  British 
Colonies  the  condition  of  the  Indian  workers  is  anything  but  enviable.  In 
many  respects  they  are  treated  worse  than  dogs,  cats  and  cattle.  In  South 
Africa  their  condition  is  the  worst.  The  treatment  they  are  subjected  to  may 
best  be  described  in  the  words  of  an  English  woman,  Isabel  F.  Mayo,  who 
thus  writes  in  the  pages  of  the  Mitigate  Monthly:  "Fierce  dogs  have  been  set 
on  these  indentured  laborers.  They  have  been  cooped  up  in  boxes  for  many 
hours  without  food.  Among  the  charges  against  the  father,  mother  and  sons 
of  an  employing  family  were  those  of  striking  an  Indian  across  the  face  with 
a  rhinoceros  hide  whip,  lashing  a  woman  with  same  till  blood  flowed  from  her 
ear,  and  applying  the  same  whip  on  her  son  when  he  cried  out  at  the  sight  of 
his  mother's  suff"erings,  and  tormenting  a  maimed  Indian  who  wanted  to  leave 
the  estate,  but  who  could  get  no  proper  information  as  to  how  to  do  so  and  who 
got  sentenced  to  fourteen  days'  hard  labor  in  his  efforts  to  get  justice,  in  con- 
sequence of  which  he  tried  to  commit  suicide;  forcing  his  wife  to  the  field  when 
her  infant  was  not  a  week  old.  On  all  occasions  these  employers  get  off  with 
small  fines."  Indians  at  home  and  abroad  most  valiantly  protested  against  these 
and  other  disadvantages  and  atrocities.  Mahatma  Mohanlal  Karamchand  Gandhi 
was  for  many  years  the  recognized  leader  of  the  Indians  in  South  Africa.  He  was 
imprisoned  times  without  number  for  his  resistance  to  unjust  laws  and  outrage- 
ous practices.  Many  a  time  he  has  been  made  to  "march  publicly  through  the 
streets  in  prison  garb  to  grace  General  Smuts'  triumph."  And  his  compatriots 
have  been  sent  out  in  road  gangs  under  notoriously  brutal  warders,  "armed  with 
rhinoceros  hide  whips,  who  were  free  to  maltreat  the  prisoners  under  their 
charge."  Indian  women  in  South  Africa  "have  given  birth  to  still  born  children 
as  the  result  of  harsh  treatment  or  shock  at  their  husbands'  sudden  imprison- 
ment." 

The  recent  revolt  of  the  Indian  workers  in  Fiji  has  brought  to  the 
attention  of  the  world  a  state  of  affairs  that  demands  immediate  attention  and 
satisfactory  solution.  Male  Indian  workers  there  get  only  thirty-cents  a  day 
and  female  seventeen  cents.  Thus  exploited  and  starved,  both  men  and  women 
are  most  unspeakably  tortured  and  outraged.  Unable  to  bear  any  longer,  the 
workers  struck  work  and  revolted.     Numerous  policemen  were  hurt  during  the 

10 


riots  and  200  Indians  were  arrested.  The  reason  for  labor  unrest  in  Fiji  is 
not  far  to  seek.  It  lies,  as  elsewhere,  in  the  capitalistic  system  that  thrives  in 
Fiji.  The  Colonial  Sugar  Refining  Co.  has  its  headquarters  in  Sydney  and  owti 
large  sugar  estates  in  Fiji,  with  many  of  Sydney's  wealthiest  men  as  share- 
holders. In  January  1916  its  reserves  and  undistributed  profits  amounted  to 
$3,150,000;  in  May  1918  they  amounted  to  $5,655,000.  In  two  years  the  Vacuum 
Oil  Co.  made  a  profit  of  $4,905,000  on  a  capital  of  $7,500,000.  In  Canada, 
Australia  and  New  Zealand  Indian  workers  are  not  even  allowed  to  enter; 
though  colonists  from  these  countries  may  hold  highest  positions  in  the  civil 
and  military  services  of  India.  On  account  of  recruiting  necessities  the  in- 
dentured system  was  ofi&cially  abolished  in  1917,  but  the  misery  the  degradation, 
the  tortures  and  the  crushing  poverty  of  the  Indian  workers  in  the  British 
colonies  still  continue,  even  in  a  more  reprehensible  form.  Since  1917  Indian 
workers  are  barred  from  America.  There  are,  however,  about  3,000  Indian 
workers  in  this  country,  mostly  along  the  Pacific  Coast.  They  work  on  the  farms 
and  in  the  factroies.  They  are  well-paid  so  their  standard  of  living  is  at  least 
just  as  high  as  any  group  of  American  workingmen.  Industrious,  thrifty  and 
peaceful  they  are  indeed  an  asset  to  America.  They  are  intensely  patriotic. 
Most  of  them  belong  to  the  Hindustan  Gadar  Party,  a  party  that  is  working  for 
the  complete  independence  of  India,  and  have  rendered  invaluable  services  to 
the  cause.  Dozens  of  its  members  have  most  cruelly  been  killed  by  the  British 
for  the  crime  of  patriotism. 

Agricultural  Labor 

By  far  the  most  important  and  most  perplexing  of  India's  labor  problems 
is  the  rural  situation.  The  great  majority  of  the  people  of  India  live  in  villages. 
There  are  only  thirty  cities  with  over  100,000  population,  and  they  harbor  but 
two  per  cent,  of  the  total  population  of  the  country.  There  are  730,000  villages 
with  the  average  population  of  363  people.  About  75  per  cent,  of  India's 
population  are  dependent  on  farming;  and  the  total  population  of  315,000,- 
000,  230,176,104  are  supported  by  agriculture  including  raising  of  farm  stock. 
The  main  products  of  the  soil  include,  rice,  wheat,  barley,  jawar,  bajra,  maize, 
grani,  pulse  of  various  kinds,  sugar,  tea,  coffee,  oilseeds,  cotton,  jute,  indigo, 
opium,  tobacco,  etc.,  etc.  The  following  table  shows  the  total  acreage  under 
chief  crops  and  the  production  in  1917-18: 

NAME  OF  CROPS  ACRES  SOWN  YIELD 

Rice 80,141,000 36,236,000  Tons 

Wheat    35,487,000 9,922,000      " 

Cotton    25,298,000 4,085,000  Bales 

Linseed    3,102,000 398,000  Tons 

Rape  &  Must'd      7,126,000 1,153,200      " 

Seasamum   —     4,279,000 381,000      " 

Ground  Nut  __     1,936,000 1,057,000      " 

Jute    2,736,000 8,864.,600  Bales 

Indi'^o    710,710,200 126,800  In  cwts  of  dye 

Sue^r    Cane__     2,809,000 3,311,000  Tons 

Tea    667,100 371,296,300  libs. 

11 


The  people  of  India  have  a  large  share  in  the  production  of  raw  materials 
but  the  least  reward.    Before  the  establishment  of  the  blighting  British  autocracy 
in  this  land  of  plenty  and  prosperity,  the  farmer  was  the  master  of  his  own  farm 
and  he  lived  in  village  communities  that  have  aptly  been  called  "self-governing 
little    republics."     His  only  obligation  to  the  central  government  was  the  pay- 
ment of  about  one-twelfth  of  the  crops  harvested.     In  case  of  failure  of  crops, 
he  was  totally  exempted  from  all  payments.     He  always  paid  in  kind.     But 
UJider  the  British  rule,  the  entire  system  of  land  tenure  and  village  life  has  under- 
gone a  radical  change.     Today  the  British  government  is  the  paramount  land- 
lord in  India.     It  owns  every  acre  of  land.     In  all  provinces,  excepting  Bengal, 
where  the  permanent  settlement  inaugurated  by  Lord  Cornwallis  of  American 
fame  still   exists,   the  farmer   leases   the  land   from  the   government  for  ten, 
twenty  or  thirty  years.    And  at  every  new  settlement  the  land  tax  is  raised  fifty, 
sixty,  and  even  as  high  as  one  hundred  and  five  per  cent.    The  farmer  has  now 
to  pay  in  cash.     Crop  or  no  corp  he  must  pay,  and  that  on  a  fixed  day.     Ac- 
cording to  the  present  system  "fifty  per  cent.,"  to  use  the  words  of  Lord  Mor- 
ley,  "of  the  net  assets  is  the  ordinary  standard  of  assessment  of  land  revenue 
alone  throughout  India."     This  rate  generally  rises  to  as  high  as  65  and  70 
per  cent.     In  addition  to  this  the  farmer  has  to  pay  rates  and  cesses  for  police, 
roads,  irrigation,  public  works,  etc.     The  Indian  farmer  is  the  most  heavily 
taxed  man   in  the   world.     "The  government  assessment"   wrote   Sir  William 
Hunter  in  1883,  and  things  are  certainly  much  worse  now,  "does  not  leave 
enough  food  to  the  cultivator  to  support  himself  and  his  family  throughout  the 
year."     Writes  General   Briggs  in  his  Land  Tax  in   India:   "The  flourishing 
condition  of  the  country  under  the  Moghul  Emperors  is  recorded  by  all  Europ- 
ean travellers  who  have  visited  the  East  within  the  last  three  centuries  and  the 
wealth,  the  population,  and  the  national   prosperity   of  India  far  surpassing 
what  they  had  seen  in  Europe,  filled  them  with  astonishment.     That  the  con- 
dition of  the  people  and  the  country  under  our  government  presents  no  such 
spectacle,  is  every  day  proclaimed  by  ourselves,  and  we  may  therefore  assume 
it  to  be  true.     If  I  have  proved  that  we  have  departed  from  the  practice  of  our 
predecessors,  that  we  have  established  a  system  far  exceeding  theirs  in  rigour 
even  in  the  worst  of  their  regular  governments,  then  indeed  there  is  some  reason 
to  call  for  a  reform,  and  to  hope  at  least  for  investigation.     I  conscientiously 
believe   that   under  no   government,   Hindu   or   Mohamedan   professing   to   be 
actuated  by  law,  was  any  system  so  subversive  of  the  prosperity  of  the  people 
.    at  large  as  that  which  has  marked  our  administration.     A  land  tax  like  that 
which  now  exists  in  India,  professing  to  absorb  the  whole  of  the  landlord's  rent 
was  never  known  under  any  government  in  Europe  or  Asia."     "Every  effort  was 
made,"  reads  a  Bombay  government  confidential  report,  "lawful  and  unlawful, 
to  get  the  utmost  out  of  the  wretched  peasantry  who  were  subjected  to  tortures 
in  some  instances  cruel  and  revolting  beyond  description  if  they  could  not  or 
would  not  yield  what  was  demanded.     Numbers  abandoned  their  homes  and 
fled  into  neighboring  Native  States;   large  tracts  of  land  were  thrown  out  of 
cultivation,  and  in  some  districts  no  more  than  one  third  of  the  cultured  area 
remained  in  occupation." 

And  again,  thus  wrote  Hon.  Mr.  A.  Rogers,  an  ex-member  of  the  Bombay 
Council  to  the  under-secretary  of  state  for  India :  "In  the  eleven  years  from  1880 

12 


to  1890  there  were  sold  by  auction  for  the  collection  of  land  revenue  the  oc- 
cupancy rights  of  1,963,364  acres  of  land  held  by  840,713  defaulters  in  addition 
to  personal  property  to  the  value  of  2,965,081  rupees  (about  $1,000,000)  of  the 
1,963,364  acres  1,174,143  had  to  be  bought  in  on  the  part  of  the  government 
for  want  of  bidders,  that  is  to  say,  very  nearly  60  per  cent,  of  the  land  supposed 
to  be  fairly  and  equitably  assessed  could  not  find  purchasers  and  only  the  bal- 
ance of  779,142  acres  was  sold."  The  British  government  sells  not  only  the 
farms  but  also  the  homes  and  personal  belongings  of  the  farmers  and  their 
families — their  ploughs,  their  cattle,  their  beds,  their  cooking  utensils,  their 
houses  and  iheir  dishes,  yes  everything  they  have  but  the  rags  in  which  they  are 
dressed. 

Famines 
Thrown  out  of  their  farms  and  homes  the  farmers  and  their  families 
face  starvation  and  death.  This  naturally  points  to  the  pathetic  story  of  India's 
chronic  famines  that  simply  sweep  away  the  lives  of  millions  of  India's  poverty- 
stricken  human  beings,  as  cyclones  sweep  particles  of  dust,  and  dry  leaves. 
Famines  in  India  are  increasing  in  frequency  and  intensity.  Not  a  year  passes 
that  some  part  of  India  or  other  is  not  under  the  iron  grip  of  this  deadly  scourge, 
England's  gift  to  India.  In  his  "Prosperous  British  India,"  Sir  William  Digby 
publishes  statistics  showing  how  famines  in  India  have  increased  under  British 
rule:  In  the  fourteenth  century,  there  were  three  famines;  in  the  fifteenth,  two 
famines;  in  the  sixteenth,  three  famines;  in  the  seventeenth,  three  famines;  in 
the  eighteenth  century  to  1745  four  famines.  But  under  the  British  rule,  in  the 
eightenth  century  from  1769  to  1800  seven  famines;  nineteenth  century,  thirty- 
one  famines.  In  the  first  quarter  of  the  nineteenth  century  there  were  five  famines 
with  1,000,000  deaths,  and  in  the  fourth  quarter,  eighteen  famines  with  26,- 
000,000  deaths.  Many  ignorant  people  all  over  the  wolrd  are  gulled  into  be- 
lieving by  British  propaganda  that  India  is  over-populated,  hence  people  must 
die  of  starvation.  But  what  are  the  facts  in  the  case?  The  density  of  population 
per  square  mile  in  Belgium  is  652;  in  England  and  Wales  618;  in  Holland  535; 
Japan  320;  Germany  310-4;  Italy  293;  Austria  247;  China  266;  and  India 
175.  Nor  is  birth  rate  in  India  the  highest  in  the  world.  The  birth  rate  per 
thousand  in  China  is  50;  Russia  49;  Servia  41;  Hungary  40;  Rumania  40;  Bul- 
garia 39;  Germany  36;  Mexico  35;  Chilie  35;  and  India  35. 

Famines  in  India  are  neither  caused  by  failure  of  rains  as  many  think, 
for  India  has  the  heaviest  rainfall  in  the  world.  In  some  provinces  of  India 
it  rains  more  in  one  day  than  it  does  in  England  throughout  the  year.  The 
trouble  lies  in  the  fact  that  the  British  government  does  not  store  the  rain 
water,  nor  does  it  build  enough  irrigation  works  though  it  extorts  from  the  poor 
peasants  eight  to  twenty-two  per  cent,  dividend  on  investments  in  such  enter- 
prises. The  annual  revenue  derived  from  irrigation  works  amounts  to  $27,500,- 
000.  Nor  are  the  famines  due  to  lack  of  food  stuff's,  as  even  an  economist  like 
Professor  Richard  T.  Ely  seems  to  think.  "In  India,"  he  writes  in  his  "Outlines 
of  Economics,"  "the  population  presses  so  closely  upon  the  food  supply  that  any 
considerable  failure  in  the  rice  crop  is  sure  to  result  in  famine  and  starvation." 
In  spite  of  many  agricultural  difficulties  India  is  one  of  the  greatest  food-pro- 
ducing countries  in  the  world,  as  has  been  mentioned  before.  Even  in  the  worst 
famine  years  India  produces  more  food  than  what  she  can  consume  herself. 
In  such  years  when  India's  own  children  die  of  starvation  in  millions,  she  is 

13 


forced  to  export  food  to  England.  In  1899-1900  India  suffered  from  one  of  the 
worst  famines  in  history,  and  yet  British  India  exported  $60,332,445  worth  of 
grains  alone.  In  1917-18  the  export  of  India's  food  and  drink  was  worth 
$247,179,360.  This  was  a  famine  year  in  India.  It  is  estimated  that  during 
this  year  and  the  next  about  32,000,000  men,  women  and  children  were  slaugh- 
tered by  England's  sword  of  famine.  And  yet.  Sir  J.  Meston,  the  finance  min- 
ister to  the  government  of  India,  spoke  thus  in  his  budget  speech  on  March  1, 
1919:  "Export  of  cereals  rose  by  over  50  per  cent,  to  a  total  in  1917-18  of 
5,400,000  tons  valued  at  $180,000,000.  In  the  case  of  wheat  the  record  figure 
of  1,500,000  tons  was  reached.  In  the  earlier  months  of  the  current  year,  India's 
contribution  of  food  stuffs  was  maintained  at  an  even  higher  level  than  in  1917." 
Moreover,  India's  agriculture  is  in  such  an  antiquated  state  that  with  the  very 
beginning  of  scientific  methods  the  yield  of  the  land  can  be  doubled.  At  present, 
India  produces  only  ten  bushels  of  wheat  per  acre  to  Great  Britain's  thirty-four. 

The  Revolt  of  the  Farmer 

With  the  tremendous  strength  of  desperateness  the  over-exploited  farmer 
of  India,  too,  is  in  revolt  against  British  autocracy.  As  long  ago  as  1877  there 
were  serious  agrarian  riots  in  Bombay  as  a  protest  against  over-taxation.  Pro- 
perties were  destroyed  and  British  ofi&cials  were  roughly  handled.  In  1907 
there  were  serious  rioting  in  the  Punjab  canal  colonies.  Lord  Morley  claimed 
that  they  were  purely  seditious.  Yes,  it  was  an  agrarian  sedition.  The  canal 
zone  could  be  made  into  a  source  of  great  blessing  to  the  people.  But  the  ir- 
rigation works  were  so  cruelly  taxed  by  the  government  as  to  extort  from  the 
farmers  dividends  as  high  as  22  per  cent.  The  land  revenue  was  high;  and  the 
British  officials  were  so  tyrannical  that  even  the  Pioneer  of  Allahabad,  a  semi- 
official paper,  remarked  at  that  time  that  "the  poker  backed  Prussian  official 
was  mild  in  comparison  with  the  canal  bureaucrats."  Feelings  of  fierce  resent- 
ment spread  fast,  mass  meetings  were  held  and  wild  words  were  uttered.  The 
colonists  were  principally  members  of  the  mighty  Sikh  Brotherhood.  Through 
them  the  agitation  was  carried  into  the  British  army.  Riots  occurred  in  different 
cities  of  the  Punjab.  Lord  Kitchener,  the  Commander-in-Chief,  saw  the  danger 
ahead  and  intervened  in  the  matter.  The  colonization  bill  was  rejected  by  the 
Lieutenant  Governor.  Again  in  1917  crops  in  Kaira,  Bombay,  was  25  per  cent, 
below  the  normal.  The  tax  on  land  was  50,  60,  70  and  even  as  high  as  ninety 
per  cent,  of  the  rental.  The  farmers  were  forced  to  pay  in  cash.  This  year  the 
farmers  refused  to  pay  any  taxes.  Mohanlal  Karamchand  Gandhi,  the  leader 
of  the  passive  resistance  movement  in  India,  himself  investigated  into  the  con- 
dition to  find  that  in  more  than  fifty  per  cent,  of  the  cases  the  tax  could  not  be 
met  at  all.  He  urged  the  farmers  not  to  pay  any  taxes.  The  government  officials 
forcibly  collected  all  they  could.  Later  the  British  Indian  Government  published 
a  report.  But  the  only  Indian  on  the  Committee,  Sir  Sankaran  Nair,  who  later 
resigned  from  the  Viceroy's  council  as  a  protest  against  the  British  atrocities 
in  the  Punjab,  thus  wrote  in  his  minute  of  dissent:  "The  note  on  the  Kaira  Case 
only  shows  that  the  Government  officials  did  not  give  any  relief  to  the  raiyats 
and  were  precluded  from  giving  any  by  the  revenue  rules.  It  admits  that  no  in- 
quiry is  allowed  into  individual  circumstances  with  the  result  that  even  if  there 
is  no  crop  on  the  land  the  raiyat  would  be  bound  to  pay  the  revenue.  If  the 
raiyat  does  not  pay,  he  will  have  to  surrender  his  land  without  any  compensation 

14 


for  the  capital  and  labor  sunk.  .  .  .  This  is  the  system  responsible  for  the  de- 
stitution of  the  raiyat."  The  Indian  revolutionists  are  incessantly  preaching  the 
gospel  of  independence  amongst  the  agricultural  workers.  As  a  result  the  farmers 
in  all  the  provinces  are  defying  the  authority  of  the  British  Raj  at  the  least  pro- 
vocation. Even  the  slave  vkrorkers  in  the  tea  gardens  of  Assam  have  in  more  in- 
stances than  one  thrashed  their  British  taskmasters  to  their  hearts'  content. 

Art  Workers 

Students  of  international  art  and  literature  know  of  India's  contribution 
to  aesthetics.  Under  the  Indian  rulers,  before  the  British  occupation,  art  and 
literature  were  patronized  by  the  government.  The  Indian  princes  do  it  today; 
but  things  are  different  in  British  India.  The  Briton  does  not  know  any  of  the 
languages  of  the  country;  nor  does  he  appreciate  the  subtle  message  of  India's 
art.  Neither  pen  nor  poesy  can  adequately  describe  such  a  pathetic  situation. 
The  art  galleries  are  filled  with  cheap  works  of  art  from  the  west.  In  the  place 
of  artistic  public  buildings  of  old,  crude  structures  are  being  erected  today. 
Sculpture  has  almost  become  a  thing  of  the  past.  Music  is  pining  and  drama 
has  degenerated.  Thus  for  lack  of  appreciation  and  encouragement,  nay,  on 
account  of  even  positive  discouragement  from  the  alien  British  usurper  in  India, 
art  workers  have  ben  forced  to  leave  their  cherished  pursuits  in  life  and  go  into 
business  only  to  make  a  living.  This  loss  to  the  world  of  art  is  incalculable. 
But  with  the  new  awakening  of  the  people  the  art  workers  are  uniting  and  form- 
ing themselves  into  guilds  and  unions  again.  And  they  have  already  begun  to 
produce  some  exquisite  works  of  art  and  literature.  It  is  a  happy  thing  that 
an  artist  like  Abanindranath  Tagore  is  leading  the  art  movement,  as  Rabindra- 
nath  Tagore  is  leading  the  literary  movement. 

Abject  Poverty 

Work,  work,  work;  hunger,  hunger,  hunger;  lingering  death,  lingering 
death,  lingering  death;  these  alas!  are  the  milestones  on  the  tragic  path  of  the 
life  of  the  workingman  of  India.  Enveloped  in  an  engrossing  mist  of  poverty  he 
goes  through  life  as  in  nightmare.  From  birth  to  death,  he  rises  before  dawn 
hungry,  works  all  day  long  with  but  little  to  eat,  and  at  night  he  goes  to  bed  hun- 
gry again.  His  constant  companions  are  hunger  and  thirst,  debt  and  degradation, 
sorrow,  suffering  and  sickness,  unclean  clothes  and  unsanitary  homes.  His  only 
consolation  in  life  is  the  hope  of  relief  in  death.  In  his  historic  speech  in  the  U. 
S.  Senate  on  the  Failure  of  British  Rule  in  India,  Senator  Joseph  Irwin 
France  said  that  the  national  annual  income  per  capita  in  U.  S.  A.  is  $372; 
in  Great  Britain  $232;  in  France  $182;  in  Germany  $156,  but  in  India  it  is 
only  $9.50  and  from  this  miserable  sum  $1.60  is  taken  by  the  government  as 
taxation.  Sir  William  Digby  in  his  "Prosperous  British  India,"  however,  holds 
that  the  average  income  of  the  Indian  people  is  about  $5.00  and  he  also  holds 
that  the  average  income  per  capita  a  day  was  .04  in  1850;  .03  cents  in  1880;  and 
it  came  down  to  a  cent  and  a  half  in  1900.  The  national  wealth  per  capita  of 
U.  S.  A.  is  $2,154;  in  Great  Britain  $1,913;  in  Germany  $1,512;  in  France 
$1,238;  in  Austria  $1,121;  in  Italy  $555;  and  in  India  $70.  Out  of  the  vast 
population  of  India  only  240,000  are  assessed  to  an  annual  income  tax  of  $333 
and  over;  and  only  $40,000  of  these  have  incomes  of  $1,666.  Even  salt  is 
a  luxury  with  the  workingman  of  India,  for  the  government  taxation  on  it  is 

15 


1000  per  cent.  In  other  words,  for  a  cent's  worth  of  salt  the  people  have  to  pay 
a  tax  of  ten  cents.  Salt  is  a  government  monopoly;  and  though  India  is  sur- 
rounded on  three  sides  by  deep  salt  water  seas,  it  is  a  crime,  punishable  by 
imprisonment,  for  an  Indian  to  take  a  bucketful  of  this  water  and  extract  the 
salt  out  of  it.  For  lack  of  the  proper  amount  of  salt  in  the  system,  people  die 
of  malaria,  and  cattle  of  moran.  It  is  estimated  that  200,000,000  (double 
the  population  of  America)  of  India's  workers  cannot  have  even  one  full 
meal  a  day.  Take  for  instance,  the  family  budget  of  a  typical  workingman's 
family  in  Bengal  recently  published  in  The  Prabasi  of  Calcutta:  The  family 
consists  of  three  brothers,  one  unmarried,  consequently  two  wives,  one  sister, 
one  mother  and  three  children.  The  eldest  brother  works  at  different  things  in 
different  seasons.  The  second  brother  works  in  the  family  of  a  landlord.  The 
youngest  stays  home,  ploughs  the  farm  and  takes  care  of  the  cattle.  The  other 
two  brothers  occasionally  help  him.    The  income  of  the  family  is: 

The  eldest  brother's  four  months'  work  as, a  boatman S35.00 

For  two  months'  work  in  the  rice  fields 14.00 

Six  months  as  a   day  laborer 25.00 

The  yearly  salary  of  the  second  brother 30.00 

For   Board 24.00 

For  clothes 2.50 

Annual  net  income  from  three  bighas  of  land 25.00 

From  sale  of  milk,  eggs,  vegetables,  etc 15.00 

The  women  earn  by  husking  rice  for  the  landlord 10.00 

Total $180.50 

Expenditure 

Food  (one  meal  a  day) $149.00 

Clothes   20.00 

Tobacco    3.00 

Interest  on  money  borrowed 6.00 

Total $178.00 

Any  comment  is  unnecessary.  Economists  agree  that  a  poor  family 
spends  a  large  percentage  of  its  income  on  food,  and  the  percentage  increases 
in  proportion  as  the  family  becomes  poorer.  In  America  a  family  with  an 
annual  income  of  $600  spends  43.84  per  cent  of  its  income  on  food;  while  a 
family  with  an  income  of  $1,200  spends  28.63  per  cent,  for  the  same  purpose. 
The  richer  a  family  grows  the  more  it  spends  on  education,  health,  recreation 
and  amusement.  Judging  by  these  analogies  what  a  ghastly  story  the  following 
table  prepared  by  Professor  Radhakamal  Mukerjee  tells  of  the  conditions 
in  India: 

Day 
Laborer 

Food 95.4 

Clothing 4.0 

Medicine    0.0 

Education    0.0 

Religion  and  Social 

Ceremonies 0.6 

Luxuries 0.0 


Agricul- 
turist 
94.0 

Carpenter 
83.5 

Black- 
smith 
79.0 

Shop- 
keeper 

77.7 

Middle- 
class 
74.0 

3.0 

12.0 

11.0 

9.0 

4.7 

1.0 

1.5 

5.0 

5.9 

8.0 

0.0 

0.0 

0.0 

1.0 

3.3 

2.0 

2.0 

4.0 

5.0 

8.0 

0.0 

1.0 

1.0 

1.4 

2.0 

100.0 

100.0 
16 

100.0 

100.0 

100.0 

In  spite  of  such  grinding  poverty  of  the  people,  England  wantonly 
squanders  most  of  their  revenues  on  militaristic  enterprises  and  capitalistic 
vagaries.  Out  of  the  total  revenue  of  $617,000,000  the  British  government  in 
India  derives  $113,432,000  from  land  revenue;  $17,764,000  from  forests; 
$15,281,000  from  opium;  $60,766,550  from  liquor;  $19,571,500  from  salt; 
$28,584,000  from  posts  and  telegraphs;  $66,762,000  from  customs,  etc.,  etc. 
On  the  other  hand,  the  government  expenditure  for  military  purposes  is  $213,- 
911,500;  strategic  railroads  $72,344,500;  education  $1,838,338  and  agriculture 
$484,500,  etc.,  etc.  The  cost  of  the  adminstration  in  which  Indians  are  legally 
barred  from  holding  high  positions  is  the  highest  in  the  world.  The  Americans 
are  the  richest  people  on  earth,  and  the  Indians  the  poorest;  and  yet  what  a 
revolting  story  the  following  figures  tell:  The  salary  of  the  President  of  the 
United  States  is  $75,000  a  year  and  that  of  the  Viceroy  of  India  $83,000  plus 
various  allowances  and  forced  presents  of  jewels,  ivory  furniture  and  other 
precious  things  from  the  princes  of  India.  A  Cabinet  member  of  U.  S.  A.  gets 
$12,000  a  year,  but  a  member  of  the  Viceroy's  council  gets  $27,000.  The  most 
highly  paid  governor  in  U.  S.  A.  gets  $12,000,  whereas  the  British  governors  of 
India  get  $40,000  each  plus  various  allowances.  The  Chief  Justice  of  the  United 
States  Supreme  Court  receives  $15,000  a  year,  but  the  British  Chief  Justice  of 
the  High  Court  of  Bengal  receives  $24,000.  Contrast  with  these  fat  salaries  the 
wages  of  the  industrial  and  agricultural  workers  of  India!  The  British  fix  their 
own  salaries,  and  they  certainly  do  know  how  to  help  themselves. 

England  not  only  squanders  India's  money  in  India  to  kep  her  in  sub- 
jection, but  has  the  brazen  impudence  of  spending  India's  public  revenue  for 
England's  wars  of  imperialistic  expansion  and  commercial  aggrandisement  in 
other  parts  of  the  world  as  well.  As  for  instance,  India  was  forced  to  pay,  as 
the  children  of  the  soil  had  no  voice  in  the  matter,  the  cost,  the  full  cost,  of 
England's  first  Afghan  war  of  1838-39;  the  first  China  War  of  1839-40;  the 
Persian  War  of  1856;  the  Abyssinian  War  of  1866-68;  the  Perak  Expedition  of 
1875;  the  second  Afghan  War  of  1878-80;  the  Egyptian  War  of  1878-80;  the 
Soudan  War  of  1885-86.  And  during  the  last  five  years  of  the  ferocious  Anglo- 
German  War  in  which  others  took  part,  England  mercilessly  extorted  from  the 
helpless  and  forcibly  disarmed  people  of  India,  $2,000,000,000  in  cash  beside 
other  costly  "gifts"  at  the  point  of  the  baton  and  the  bayonet.  Every  year 
England  drains  out  of  India  no  less  than  $200,000,000  without  an  equivalent 
return.  There  would  be  famine  even  in  America  if  she  were  exploited  as  India 
is  by  England.  "Let  no  one  cite  India"  wrote  William  Jennings  Bryan  after 
a  visit  to  that  country,  "as  an  argument  in  defense  of  colonialism.  While  the 
Briton  has  boasted  of  bringing  peace  to  the  living  he  has  led  millions  to  the 
peace  of  the  grave;  while  he  has  dwelt  upon  order  established  betwen  warring 
troops,  he  has  impoverished  the  country  by  legalized  pillage.  Pillage  is  a  strong 
word,  but  no  refinement  of  language  can  purge  the  present  system  of  its  iniquity." 

Mortality 

Such  ruthless  exploitation  can  not  but  result  in  abnormal  mortality  in  the 
land.  By  modern  sanitary  methods  America  has  turned  a  plague  spot  like 
Panama  into  a  veritable  health  resort.  By  economic  and  sanitary  advancement, 
England  has  reduced  her  death-rate  in  the  last  fifteen  years  from  twenty-five 
to  fourteen  per  thousand,  whereas  India's  death-rate  is  ever  on  the  increase. 

17 


In  1893  it  was  25  per  thousand,  in  1903  35,  and  in  1918  it  went  up  to  62.42  per 
thousand.  The  death-rate  in  France  is  17  per  thousand,  Norway  13;  Sweden  14; 
and  Holland  12.  The  average  longivity  in  India  is  only  23.5  years.  The  death- 
rate  of  children  under  one  year  per  thousnad  births  is  exceedingly  high  in 
India.  In  Egland  it  is  98;  Denmark  94;  Switzerland  94;  France  78;  Sweden 
72;  New  Zealand  51;  but  in  India  it  is  325.  In  1918,  11,134,441  people  died  of 
fever,  and  fever  in  India  has  been  aptly  called  "an  euphemism  for  insufficient 
food,  scanty  clothing  and  unfit  dwelling."  It  is  estimated  that  two-thirds  of  the 
total  mortality  of  India  are  due  to  malnutrition  and  starvation.  Not  only  graves 
but  also  prisons  are  being  filled  with  the  victims  of  poverty.  A  recent  survey 
of  prisons  in  Bengal  discloses  the  ratio  of  total  prisoners  to  those  that  are  im- 
prisoned for  breaking  laws  for  self-preservation  from  starvation;  In  1916  the 
total  prisoners  were  28,834  of  which  starvation  prisoners  were  4,069;  in  1917 
the  figures  respectively  were  29,772  to  4,211;  and  in  1918,  28,698  to  4,052. 

The  Co-operative  Movement 

Though  the  co-operative  credit  movement  is  but  fifteen  years  old,  its 
growth  has  been  phenomenal.  In  every  province  it  is  growing  in  number  and 
influence.  Rack-rented,  indebted  and  poverty  stricken,  the  farmers  of  India 
find  a  little  relief  in  this  movement.  The  revolt  of  the  raiyat  was  growing  so 
powerful  and  threatening  that  the  British  government  readily  took  to  the  safety- 
valve  of  the  co-operative  movement.  How  the  movement  is  spreading  may  be 
easily  surmised  from  the  following  statistics:  In  the  Bombay  Presidency  in 
1907  there  were  seventy  such  societies  with  the  capital  of  S50,000;  in  1909  209 
societies  with  the  capital  of  $242,000;  in  1916  992  societies  with  the  capital  of 
$3,235,000;  and  in  1919  there  were  2,083  societies  with  the  capital  of  $6,700,- 
000.  In  the  Madras  Presidency  in  1905-6  there  were  only  twenty-seven  societies 
with  2,733  members  and  $35,883,  in  capital;  in  1914-15  there  were  1,446  so- 
cieties 90,088  members  and  $2,151,862  in  capital.  In  this  year  the  Punjab 
had  3,267  societies  with  154,065  members  and  $4,557,577  in  capital.  In  1914- 
15  there  were  all  over  India  16,295  co-operative  societies  with  761,935  members 
with  a  share  capital  of  $4,372,495.  Deposits  from  members  amounted  to 
$3,833,160.  During  this  year  loans  were  issued  to  2,613,994  members  and  other 
societies.  In  1905-6  the  first  year  of  this  movement  there  were  only  283  so- 
cieties; 28,629  members;  share  capital  $43,735  and  deposits  of  $41,310;  and 
22,670  members  and  other  societies  received  loans. 

The  co-operative  movement  is  entirely  under  the  control  of  the  British 
government.  It  makes  the  laws  and  operates  the  machinery  of  administration. 
Through  this  the  alien  government  is  becoming  conversant  with  the  minutest  de- 
tails of  the  life  of  the  farmer's  family.  Consequently  this  beneficient  institution 
is  fast  becoming  an  engine  of  tyranny.  It  is  nothing  short  of  an  expansion  and 
deepening  of  the  British  imperialistic  conquest  of  India.  And  indeed,  here  is 
being  enacted  the  final  act  in  the  attempted  enslavement  of  the  people  which  be- 
gan with  the  military  occupation  one  hundred  and  fifty  years  ago.  With  the  dawn- 
ing of  this  consciousness  many  co-operative  societies  quite  independent  of  the 
government,  are  being  founded  all  over  India.  Hundreds  of  co-operative  shops, 
companies  and  purchasing  and  distributing  agencies  are  being  established.  At 
Conjeeveram  the  Co-operative  Productive  Society  has  been  founded  for  the  bene- 

18 


fit  of  the  weavers.  It  supplies  capital,  looms  and  raw  material;  it  buys  and  sells 
the  products  and  divides  its  profits  amongst  its  members.  Institutions  like  this 
are  numerous  now.  The  country  is  in  the  grip  of  this  movement  and  herein  lies 
the  economic  salvation  of  many  countries  beside  India. 

Education 

The  progress  of  the  labor  movement  in  India  is  somewhat  hampered  in 
its  constructive  aspect  by  the  general  lack  of  education  in  the  country.  The 
British  government  is  opposed  to  the  expansion  of  education  in  India.  It  seeks 
to  keep  the  people  in  illiteracy,  so  that  they  may  be  ruled  easily.  Education 
opens  the  eyes  of  the  people  and  makes  rebels  against  conquerors,  as  education 
opens  the  eyes  of  the  wage  slaves  and  makes  rebels  against  capitalists.  But 
education  is  not  a  new  thing  in  India.  At  the  very  dawn  of  human  history, 
when  England  was  peopled  with  savages,  India  had  schools,  colleges  and  uni- 
versities. Well-informed  historians  do  not  hesitate  to  admit  the  debt  of  human 
civilization  to  India's  contribution  towards  the  very  birth  of  sciences  like  arith- 
methic,  algebra,  geometry,  astronomy,  grammar,  chemistry,  physics,  medicine 
and  surgery;  and  arts  like  poetry,  painting,  sculpture,  architecture  and  music. 
It  has  been  admitted  by  British  administrators  that  before  the  British  occupied 
India,  she  had  schools  in  every  village,  and  the  boon  of  education  was  free  to 
the  people.  But  today,  according  to  British  Blue  Books,  there  are  no  schools 
in  four  villages  out  of  five.  In  the  second  decade  of  the  twentieth  century 
there  are  no  free  schools  or  compulsory  system  of  education  for  the  children 
of  the  land.  In  fact  eighty  children  out  of  one  hundred  are  growing  without 
any  schooling  at  all.  The  percentage  of  population  enrolled  in  the  elementary 
schools  of  the  United  States  is  19.87;  in  Enginad  and  Wales  16.52;  Germany 
16.30;  France  13.90;  Japan  13.07;  and  in  India  it  is  only  2.38.  It  is  indeed 
a  bitter  irony  of  fate  that  India  should  be  dependent  for  the  progress  of  edu- 
cation on  the  whims  of  the  British  administrators.  A  few  years  ago  Gopal 
Krishna  Gokhale  introduced  a  bill  in  the  Viceroy's  legislative  council  for  the 
introduction  of  free  primary  schools  for  India's  children,  but  the  British  gov- 
ernment that  is.  arduously  engaged  in  the  tremendous  task  of  "civilizing  the 
heathen  Hindus"  rejected  the  bill  outright.  And  it  was  claimed  by  the  British 
officials  that  the  Indians  were  not  fit  even  for  free  education. 

After  one  hundred  and  fifty  years  of  British  rule,  only  ten  men  out  of 
a  hundred  and  one  woman  out  of  one  hundred  and  fifty  can  read  and  write. 
In  other  words  about  95  per  cent,  of  the  people  are  illiterate.  In  forty  years 
Japan  has  reduced  her  illiteracy  to  only  five  per  cent.  In  the  last  twenty  years 
America  has  reduced  the  illiteracy  in  the  Philippines  to  fifty-six  per  cent.  In 
the  last  forty  years  America  has  reduced  the  illiteracy  of  the  Negroes  to  thirty 
per  cent.  India  is  primarily  an  agricultural  country.  And  yet  there  is  not 
one  agricultural  school  for  the  farmers  of  India.  The  first  Agricultural  College 
in  India  was  opened  a  few  years  ago,  and  that  at  the  generosity  of  an  American 
citizen:  Mr.  Henry  Phipps  gave  $150,000  to  the  British  government  for  this 
purpose.  And  the  rules  are  such  that  farmers  are  most  effectively  barred  from 
deriving  any  advantage  from  this  college,  though  the  money  was  primarily 
meant  for  them  by  its  generous  donor.  India's  industries  are  in  a  backward 
state,  and  yet  there  are  no  worthy  industrial  schools  in  British  India.  The 
education  of  the  children  of  the  industrial  workers  in  the  mill  districts  is  most 

19 


woefully  neglected.  England's  educational  policy  in  India  may  best  be  sur- 
mised from  the  following  figures  giving  the  per  capita  annual  expenditure  on 
education  of  the  countries  mentioned:  U.  S.  A.  $4.00;  Switzerland  $3.40; 
England  and  Wales  $2.50;  Germany  $1.70;  Japan  $0.27;  India  $0.02.  It  may 
be  mentioned  here  that  the  Gaekwar  of  Baroda  spends  $0.14;  the  Maharaja  of 
Travancore  $0.15;  and  the  Maharaja  of  Mysore  $0.25,  almost  as  much  as  in 
Japan. 

The  workingmen  have  already  begun  to  realize  their  position  on  the 
ladder  of  education.  So  in  mammoth  mass  meetings  both  the  agricultural  and 
industrial  workers  are  demanding  the  immediate  opening  of  industrial,  technical 
and  agricultural  schools  for  the  people.  It  remains  to  be  seen  how  long  the 
alien  government  would  dare  refuse  the  united  demand  of  the  workingmen  of 
India.  In  the  meantime  labor  leaders  with  the  self-sacrificing  co-operation  of 
the  workers  of  India  are  dotting  the  country  with  night  schools  for  the  educa- 
tion of  the  workers  and  their  children.  In  many  instances  workers  in  Bombay, 
Calcutta  and  Madras  have  most  cheerfully  suffered  from  starvation  in  order 
to  contribute  their  might  for  the  opening  up  of  schools.  In  the  remotest  villages 
rich  women  are  selling  their  jewels  and  working  women  are  giving  their  services 
to  raise  funds  for  the  same  purpose.  Numerous  young  men  have  given  up  their 
lucrative  positions  in  order  to  be  able  to  teach  the  workers  in  such  schools. 
In  spite  of  the  government  opposition  to  the  contrary,  the  educational  movement 
in  India  is  progressing  with  incredible  rapidity. 

Politics  and  Labor 

It  cannot  be  truthfully  denied  that  the  labor  revolt  is  a  part  of  the 
revolutionary  movement  in  India  which  is  daily  growing  more  intensive  and 
extensive.  The  leaders  of  the  nationalist  movement  are  fast  realizing  the  im- 
portance of  labor  for  the  political  emancipation  of  the  country;  and  the  im- 
portance of  politics  for  the  well  being  of  human  society.  True  it  is  that  politics 
surrounds  us  on  all  sides.  Education,  sanitation,  commerce  and  industry;  food, 
shelter  and  transportation,  nay  even,  birth,  marriage  and  death  are  most  vitally 
affected  and  controlled  by  politics,  either  for  good,  or  for  evil.  The  Indian 
leader  now  finds  that  when  the  British  government  frowns  he  cannot  open  schools 
for  the  education  of  the  masses.  And  if  it  is  against  the  interests  of  the  alien 
rulers,  it  is  extremely  difficult  to  do  anything  for  the  economic  development  of 
the  country,  or  improve  the  lot  of  the  workingmen  and  workingwomen.  And 
again,  when  he  finds  that  in  the  making  of  the  laws  that  raise  taxes,  disburse 
finance  and  generally  shape  the  destiny  of  the  country,  it  is  the  British  over- 
lords from  beyond  the  seas,  overlords  that  have  been  rightly  characterized  by 
Edmund  Burke  as  "birds  of  passage  and  of  prey,"  that  wield  the  controlling 
power,  he  naturally  cries  out  for  a  government  in  India  that  shall  be  a  gov- 
ernment of  the  people,  by  the  people,  and  for  the  people;  and  not  a  govern- 
ment as  it  is  today,  of  India,  by  the  British  and  for  the  British.  Hence  the  cry 
for  "life,  liberty  and  pursuit  of  happiness"  is  rending  the  sky. 

To  this  the  British  reply  is  repression,  more  repression,  and  coercion 
more  cruelly  administered.  The  province  of  Bengal  was  partitioned  to  weaken 
the  growing  solidarity  of  the  people.  The  Universities  Act  was  passed  to  cripple 
education.  The  Seditious  Meetings  Act  was  passed  to  throttle  freedom  of  speech. 
The  Press  Act  was  passed  to  gag  the  press.    The  Rowlatt  Act  was  passed  to  place 

20 


the  country  under  martial  law  to  crush  all  revolutionary  activities  in  the 
country.  A  few  of  the  provisions  of  this  Act  were:  "Any  Indian  is  subject  to 
arrest  without  warrant  upon  mere  suspicion,  and  detention  without  trial  for 
an  unlimited  length  of  time.  When  tried,  the  accused  is  to  be  given  a  secret 
trial  before  a  commission  of  three  High  Court  Judges  appointed  by  the  executive. 
The  accused  is  deprived  of  the  help  of  a  lawyer,  and  the  prosecution  shall  not 
be  bound  to  observe  the  rules  of  the  law  of  evidence.  The  government  may  use 
any  and  every  means  in  carrying  out  the  law,  and  in  obtaining  confessions. 
Men  who  have  served  prison  terms  for  political  offenses  may  be  required  to  give 
bonds  for  two  years  after  their  release;  be  restricted  in  certain  specific  areas; 
must  report  regularly  to  the  police;  cannot  change  address  without  notification 
of  authorities  and  must  give  securities  for  good  behavior.  They  can  never 
thereafter  write  or  discuss  publicly  any  political  subject,  or  distribute  any 
writing  or  printed  matter  relating  to  any  such  subject.  There  shall  be  no 
appeal  from  the  decision  of  this  punitive  court."  The  scope  of  the  law  of  se- 
dition was  soon  widened  to  include  such  crimes  as 

1.  to  say  that  the  government  has  exposed  itself  to  severest  criti- 
cism at  the  bar  of  the  public  opinion; 

2.  to  protest  against  the  use  of  an  Act  which  is  in  operation; 

3.  to  say  in  connection  with  any  measure  of  the  government  that 
its  action  is  unjust  and  unwarrantable; 

4.  to  sympathize  with  people  who  have  been  shot  dead  by  the 
military  forces  of  the  government  by  calling  them  martyrs; 

5.  to  attribute  "blazing  indiscretion"  to  the  ruler  of  a  province; 
and 

6.  to  publish  the  report  of  an  incident  which  gives  new  facts  or 
contradicts  in  any  way  an  official  communique  on  the  subject. 

Protest  meetings  against  the  Rowlatt  Bills  were  held  in  cities,  towns  and 
hamlets.  They  were  attended  by  thousands  of  people.  But  nothing  availed. 
As  John  Bull  passed  the  Stamp  Act  in  America  and  the  coercion  Acts  in  Ireland, 
so  the  same  gentleman  passed  the  Rowlatt  Act  in  India.  At  last  the  leaders  of 
the  passive  resistance  movement,  headed  by  Mahatma  M.  K.  Gandhi,  set  aside  the 
6th  of  April,  1919,  as  the  day  of  humiliation  and  prayer  as  a  protest  against 
this  British  inquisitorial  law  in  the  twentieth  century,  A  general  strike  was 
organized  for  this  day  with  signal  sucess.  The  transportation  systems  of  the 
pricipal  cities  of  India  were  seriously  affected.  In  the  city  of  Bombay  a  few 
trolley  conductors  refused  to  stop  work;  so  a  few  patriotic  men  killed  themselves 
by  simply  plunging  under  the  running  cars.  And  soon  the  trolley  system  of  the 
city  came  to  a  standstill.  Shops  and  bazars,  mills  and  factories,  trains  and 
steamships,  posts  and  telegraphs  all  ceased  operation.  The  entire  country  was 
like  a  living  grave  for  the  British,  and  full  of  transcendent  exultation  for  the 
people.  Millions  of  men  and  women  all  over  the  country  went  to  temples 
and  mosques  and  prayed  for  more  strength  of  both  body  and  mind  to  resist 
the  infamous  inroads  of  British  despotism  on  the  life  and  liberty  of  the  people 
of  Hindusthan. 

This  was  like  the  prelude  to  a  great  epic.  For  on  the  10th  of  April  the 
oppressed  people  of  India  rose  in  open  rebellion  against  the  British  occupation 
of  their  country.     And  they  rose  in  distant  provinces.     The  cities  of  Delhi, 

21 


Lahore,  Amritsar,  Ahmedabad,  Allahabad,  Virangam,  Gujranwalla,  Kasur  and 
Calcutta  were  scenes  of  grave  riots  and  revolutionary  activities.  The  British 
authorities  were  simply  staggered  with  the  quickness  of  the  revolutionary  blow. 
A  correspondent  of  the  London  Times  admitted  that  the  "outbreaks  were  nakedly 
revolutionary,  unconnected  with  the  Rowlatt  Act  or  with  passive  resistance, 
which  probably  prepared  a  movement  long  concerted."  In  the  course  of  these 
outbreaks,  British  banks,  treasuries,  town  halls  and  government  buildings  were 
attacked  and  burned.  Railway  lines,  stations  and  freight  houses  were  destroyed 
at  strategic  points.  Military  depots  and  aeroplane  sheds  were  attacked;  fast 
express  trains  were  stopped  and  looted.  The  workingmen  of  India  took  the 
leading  part  in  these  activities.  But  alas!  they  had  no  arms,  for  India  had 
been  forcibly  disarmed  by  the  British.  Given  arms  at  that  juncture  India 
might  have  been  absolutely  free  by  this  time. 

The  English  Huns,  however,  attacked  the  people  with  rifles,  machine 
guns  and  armored  cars.  Men,  women  and  even  children  were  shot  down  dead 
on  the  streets.  Half  of  the  city  of  Gujranwalla  was  burned  to  ashes  by  bombs 
from  English  aeroplanes,  destroying  hospitals,  temples,  mosques,  churches  and 
nurseries  killing  thousands  in  an  undefended  city.  The  climax  was  reached  at 
Amritsar  where  in  the  Jalleanwalla  Park  General  Dyer  opened  fire  on  a  peace- 
ful mass  meeting  without  a  word  of  warning  and  cold-bloodedly  massacred 
],000  men,  women  and  children  in  ten  minutes;  and  about  2,000  were  lying 
wounded  weltering  in  their  own  blood  for  twenty-seven  hours  without  food,  or 
drink  or  any  medical  assistance.  "I  saw  hundreds  of  persons  killed  on  the  spot," 
says  Lala  Girdhari  Lai  who  witnessed  the  scene  from  the  window  of  a  house 
overlooking  the  park.  "Firing  was  directed  towards  the  gates  through  which  the 
people  were  running  out.  Blood  was  pouring  in  profusion.  Even  those  who  lay 
flat  on  the  ground  were  shot.  No  arrangements  were  made  by  the  authorities 
to  look  after  the  dead  or  wounded.  The  dead  bodies  were  of  grown-up  people 
and  children." 

As  the  Easter  Massacre  in  Ireland  has  united  the  people  of  the  Emerald 
Isle  more  than  ever  before.  So  this  Amritsar  Massacre  has  most  wonderfully 
united  the  people,  specially  the  Hindus  and  the  Mahomedans.  And  this  sense 
of  unity  has  all  the  more  been  enhanced  by  the  outrageous  terms  of  the  Turkish 
Treaty.  Both  the  Hindus,  and  the  Mahomedans  (70,000,000  strong)  have  real- 
ized that  gentle  words  and  cringing  petitions  are  useless  in  dealing  with  the 
British  Bourbons.  So  they  have  started  what  is  known  as  the  non-co-operation 
movement.  In  other  words,  it  is  a  movement  for  boycotting  the  British  Gov- 
ernment in  India.  The  principal  terms  of  non-co-operation  include  (1)  the 
surrender  of  all  titles  of  honor  and  honorary  offices;  (2)  suspension  of  practice 
by  lawyers,  and  settlement  of  disputes  by  private  arbitration;  (3)  non-participa- 
tion in  government  loans;  (4)  boycott  of  government  schools  by  parents;  (5) 
boycott  of  reformed  councils;  (6)  refusal  to  accept  any  civil  or  military  post  in 
Mesopotamia  and  to  refuse  to  off"er  as  units  for  the  army  specially  in  Turkish  ter- 
ritories now  being  administered  in  violation  of  pledges;  (7)  vigorous  prosecution 
of  the  Swadeshi  movement  inducing  people  to  be  satisfied  with  India's  own  pro- 
ductions and  manufactures;  (8)  resignation  of  all  salaried  government  em- 
ployees; (9)  resignation  of  all  police  and  soldiers  from  their  respective  po- 
sitions; (10)  absolute  refusal  to  pay  taxes  to  the  British  Government  in  any 
shape  or  form. 

22 


The  first  stages  of  this  great  movement  of  far-reaching  consequences  have 
already  begun;  and  they  began  on  the  first  of  August  last.  The  workingmen 
responded  to  the  call  of  the  Motherland  by  a  general  strike  embracing  the  entire 
country  and  every  industry.  The  workingmen  of  India  have  always  and  invar- 
iably been  the  first  to  suffer  the  most  for  a  political  cause.  When  about  eight 
years  ago  Mahatma  Bal  Gangadhar  Tilak  was  imprisoned  by  the  British  for 
his  political  activities,  the  workers  of  Bombay  struck  work,  committed  riots, 
broke  windows  and  whipped  the  British  as  a  protest  against  this  great  man's 
incarceration.  Not  very  long  ago,  the  British  government  prohibited  a  political 
mass  meeting  in  Calcutta.  And  thousands  upon  thousands  of  workers  struck 
work  as  a  protest.  Mills  and  factories  were  closed,  work  completely  ceased  in 
the  docks  and  harbors,  and  not  a  wheel  turned  on  the  streets  of  Calcutta.  The 
striking  workingmen  proceeded  to  march  on  the  streets,  shouting  Bandemataram 
(hail  motherland),  beating  drums  and  singing  patriotic  songs.  The  British  police 
opposed  and  insulted  them.  In  retaliation  the  workers  stoned  the  police  and 
stabbed  the  English  deputy  Commissioner  of  Police,  looted  numerous  English 
shops  and  wounded  many  English  foremen  of  factories.  The  British  soldiers 
soon  arrived  on  the  scene  with  rifles  and  cannons.  The  strikers  were  desperate, 
and  they  began  to  beat  drums  at  the  mouths  of  cannons  defying  the  authority 
of  the  British  Raj  to  rule  over  India.  The  British  had  to  open  fire  in  order  to 
disperse  the  infuriated  Indian  patriots. 

Neglected  in  education,  maltreated  in  ofiGices,  ruinously  exploited  in  the 
factories  and  on  the  farms,  fruitlessly  slaughtered  on  the  fields  of  France, 
P'landers  and  Palestine,  the  patient  workingman  of  India  has  at  last  risen  in 
revolt  against  his  English  master,  and  is  perfecting  plans  to  deal  a  deadly  blow 
to  the  British  rule  in  India,  for  he  realizes  that  until  the  country  is  completely 
free  from  the  yoke  of  the  foreigner,  he  can  never  expect  to  be  truly  free.  The 
question  is  often  asked:  "Is  India  fit  for  freedom?"  In  1917  Mr.  M.  A.  Jinnah, 
a  prominent  Indian,  answered  the  question  by  saying:  "From  the  Indian  stand- 
point there  can  be  but  one  answer — 'Yes.'  Our  critics  would  probably  chal- 
lenge our  conviction.  Our  only  reply  to  them  would  be  to  go  forward  and  put 
the  matter  to  the  proof.  After  all,  what  is  the  test  of  fitness?  If  we  turn  to 
history,  we  find  that  in  the  past,  only  such  people  have  been  fit  for  freedom 
who  fought  for  it  to  attain  it.  We  are  living  in  different  times  and  under  dif- 
ferent circumstances.  Peace  has  its  victories.  We  are  fighting  and  can  only 
fight,  disarmed  as  we  are,  constitutional  battles.  This  peaceful  struggle  is  not 
and  will  not  be  wanting  in  the  quality  and  vigor  and  sacrifice."  If  America 
and  Argentine,  France  and  Germany,  China  and  Japan,  Persia  and  Poland, 
Haiti,  Liberia  and  England  are  fit  for  freedom,  then  India,  too,  is  most  de- 
cidedly fit  for  freedom.  And  the  sooner  she  gets  it  the  better  it  will  be  for  uni- 
versal peace,  and  the  emancipation  of  the  workingmen  of  the  world. 


PAWPHLEl  BINOtR 

.  Syracuse,  N.  Y. 
Stockton,  Coirf. 


hC86R6.       R812L 


UCLA-Young  Research  Library 

HD8686   .R812I 

y 

I  i|:ii  I  111    II     1    ri  I   ml 


009  590  635  0 


